The present invention relates generally to the art of climbing trees, utility poles or the like, and more particularly to a device that is simple and more convenient to handle than other such devices, while also providing improved safety during use.
Game hunters of deer, for example, often position themselves in tree stands in trees overlying paths followed by the game through the woods. Mature trees in a forested area typically do not include branches down near the ground so as to allow climbing. Accordingly, hunters frequently have a need for climbing aids that will allow them to get up in a tree along the trunk far enough to reach the lower lying limbs, often some 10 to 15 feet above the ground.
Climbing aids are also needed from time to time by employees of utility companies. For reasons of safety and to avoid potential liability from accidents, utility pole footholds for maintenance personnel typically start some 10 to 12 feet above the ground. This approach is designed to discourage and prevent unauthorized people from climbing up the poles. Of course, utility maintenance personnel need safe and effective climbing aids to reach these footholds in order to make repairs as required; for example, to correct power outages following severe thunderstorms.
Recognizing these needs, a number of devices have been developed in the art for climbing utility poles and trees. Examples of such devices are found in Russian Patent No. 369,914 and Swedish Patent No. 224,286.
The Russian patent discloses a linesman climbing device including a chain that is extended around the utility pole to climbed and a complicated conical gear arrangement for automatically controlling the slack in the chain as the weight of the linesman is applied. The Swedish patent discloses a pole climbing device including a band that is extended around the pole. A gear including a series of lugs that extend through apertures in the band is mounted to the housing to tighten and secure the band in position around the poles for climbing.
While these two devices are effective climbing aids, they are not without their disadvantages. Where an individual is required to climb some 10 to 15 vertical feet before reaching a foothold or tree limb, some of the climbing aids of the type described above may be required to be used in series along the pole or tree trunk. When not in use, the Russian and Swedish devices are not compact, since both include extended lengths of chains and bands, respectively, that are free to become twisted and tangled around each other and other objects during storage and transport to the climbing site. The chains or bands could also become separated and lost from the device, making the device useless.
Devices used in the recent past for climbing trees include a device shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,263,983 to Norton. That patent describes a portable multi-section ladder including the use of various V-shaped members which may be assembled to any height. Each section may be secured to a tree by straps having a quick release buckle, but this amounts to a device necessarily expensive as well as being heavy and bulky.
The Bamburg et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,630,314 teaches a combination ladder and tree stand, but it is far too large to be carried on a backpack, and only a fixed height can be reached.
The Starkey U.S. Pat. No. 3,961,686 teaches a type of rope ladder to be used to reach a tree stand, but this arrangement manifestly lacks both stability and safety.
The present invention was evolved in an effort to provide an exceedingly light yet sturdy device that can be conveniently carried on a backpack to a remote location, and then readily deployed in a particularly stable configuration that enables an outdoorsman to climb in a safe manner for a considerable distance up the trunk of a tree.